Video: Object-level formatting attributes

In this exercise, we are going to apply some Object Level Formatting Attributes to one of the tiles, doesn't matter which tile you select. Just go ahead and select one of them, and by Object Level Attributes I mean things like Fill and Stroke and Drop Shadow and so on, you will see. So, I am going to click on one of these guys with the black arrow tool then I am going to zoom-in, and by the way if you are just joining us for whatever reason, I've got a catch-up document here called Tiles with text.indd found inside of the 07 Object Styles folder.

Like other page layout applications, InDesign allows users to control the appearance of every element on a page. It helps format elements with style sheets, which collect formatting attributes for easy replication. But that's where the similarities end. InDesign CS3 One-on-One: Style Sheets demonstrates why InDesign's style sheets are far more powerful than anything found in any other page layout program. Pioneering electronic publisher and author Deke McClelland goes to the heart of InDesign's style sheets, and discusses how they define and guide just about every other program feature. He covers how to format words, paragraphs, whole frames, objects, tables, and even entire stories with a single click. Exercise files accompany the course.

Object-level formatting attributes

In this exercise, we are going to apply some Object Level Formatting Attributes to oneof the tiles, doesn't matter which tile you select.Just go ahead and select one of them, and by Object Level Attributes I mean things like Filland Stroke and Drop Shadow and so on, you will see.So, I am going to click on one of these guys with the black arrow tool then I am going to zoom-in,and by the way if you are just joining us for whatever reason, I've got a catch-up document here called Tileswith text.indd found inside of the 07 Object Styles folder.

So I want you to click on one of the tiles then, bring up the Swatches palette either by clicking on this little icon hereif you can find it or by pressing the F5 key that works too.Notice this tiny little icon up here in the upper left corner of the Swatches palette.That tells you whether the Fill or the Stroke is active.Most likely it's the Fill that's active right now.I am going to assume, if not, just go ahead and click on this little dinky Fill icon there,and then I want you to change the Fill to Tile Beige, the Fill being the interior of the selected object.Now, I want you to switch to the Stroke, which you can do by clickingon this other little icon there or you can press the X key.

The X Key flits you back and forth.Then, I want you to click on Tile Brown to make that Stroke Tile Brown as you see it there.Then, go out to the Control palette.Notice it says that the Stroke Weight is 1 point (1 pt).I want you to change that weight to 2 points (2 pt), weight being the thickness of the line.Now, I am going to zoom way in on this square here so that you can see.Notice how the stroke is centered on the square outline right there.So, it centered both this direction like so, and it's centered this way as well.

Do you see what I mean?So, it's sort of striding the outline.I want to shift the stroke to the interior all the way in.So I am going to do that by going over to the Stroke palette that this guy right there or you can go to the Window menuand you can choose the Stroke command or you can press the F10 key, all of those work.Then, I am going to click this guy.Notice, there is the line Weight, it's now 2 points (2 pt) we just change that up here in the Control palette.It's available in both locations.Then, I will change Align Stroke from this guy which is Align Stroke to Center.I am going to change it to Align Stroke to Inside.

We could also shift it Outside with this guy if we wanted to, but Inside is what I want like so.Did you see how that moved in.It also moved the letters.So it looks like the entire square just shrink on this,and InDesign is shoving the letters inward to account for the thicker stroke.It's pretty smart that way.We are having type inside of path outlines as concerned.Alright, now, this is really going to mess things up.I want to round the tile, round that corner a little bit because it's a Scrabble tile.Scrabble tiles are a little rounded on their corners.

I am going to do that by going up to the Object menuand choosing this command right there Corner Options which I have given the keyboard shortcut.If you loaded my Deke keys, it's Ctrl+Shift+Alt+R or Command+Shift+Option+R on the Mac,and R for Rounded Corners is the idea because that's usually how you can use the Corner Options dialog box.I am going to change the Effect from None not to Fancy or any of these other wacky ones, but to Rounded,and you can preview what that's going to look like.Notice that rounding it's going ahead and shoving the R over, check that out because once again InDesign is tryingto compensate for what you are doing to this path outline.

It can align the letter as far left as possible before it starts hitting the arc.Once it passed to its arcing, it can't get into that space anymore, so that's why the R is so far over.I don't want it to be that much rounded, so I will change this to 6 points, 0p6.Then, once I press the Tab key, it will update on screen.I will click OK, looks great.Alright, so that's the formatting thus far.In the next exercise, we are going to apply a Drop Shadow and then we are going to save this out as an Object Style.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
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